Wilsonville Spokesman Online

A family's struggle: Making sense of Jeff Johnson's changes, death

• By: Michelle Te  
• Published: 11/25/2009 2:34:40 PM

File photo
Jeff Johnson of Wilsonville was a 2005 graduate of Canby High School who played several instruments. enjoyed skiing and making movies.

Jeff Johnson, 22, was an accomplished musician who loved skiing, making movies and inspiring those around him.

The 2005 Canby High School graduate played several instruments, wrote his own music and hoped to be a band teacher one day.

He didn’t necessarily love the spotlight, but when it came to playing music, he didn’t shy away.

The 22-year-old Wilsonville man started piano lessons at age 6, later mastering the trumpet and classical guitar. He also taught himself to play bass guitar and percussion. He received several awards and a college scholarship for his musical abilities.

All that came to an abrupt end Nov. 7, when Johnson’s body was found at the bottom of the Crooked River Gorge, a 300-foot ravine at Ogden Wayside State Park in Terrebonne.
 
Johnson was ‘quite a guy’
The pain is still fresh for his father, Todd Johnson, who remembers his son as “quite a guy,” a fun person to be with who made people laugh and pursued his musical dreams with dogged determination.

“He loved jazz,” Todd said from his Charbonneau home. “He loved it so much that he went on to become self-taught on classical guitar.”

Jeff's trumpet skills landed him a full scholarship at Mount Hood Community College, where he spent his freshman year. He was one of only four students statewide to receive the scholarship.

Trumpet playing seems to run in the family. Todd has been playing trumpet since sixth grade. He was delighted when both his sons, Jeff and Brad, 19, began playing the instrument. Brad, a student at Lane Community College, is accomplished on the trombone.

“We were very close, all three of us,” said Todd. “There was nothing that made a dad prouder than to go to the concerts at the Canby High auditorium and see his boys being featured in solos in their bands.”

Jeff played in the high school band, jazz band and school orchestra. He also was a member of the high school golf team and loved fishing. He played with the Whiskey Hill Jazz Club for six years.

“Whenever Jeff was called on to participate in any kind of event, such as a summer community musical, he always stepped up,” said Todd. “He never turned down anybody when they asked him to perform.”
 
A big brother
Brad Johnson said he eagerly followed his brother’s interests, from music to skiing. Together, they skied at Government Camp, watching and making their own ski movies.

“Jeff was a big inspiration to me,” said Brad. “With skiing … I wanted to snowboard, but he convinced me that skiing was the cool thing to do. It was the same with music. He played in the jazz band and he got me to listen to jazz.”

Brad marveled at his brother’s musical abilities, hoping to follow in his footsteps.

Todd always enjoyed watching his two boys in action, especially the way Jeff took care of his younger brother.

“He looked after you,” he told Brad. “He included you whenever he could. I would sit back and smile with pride because I knew how special your relationship was.”
 
Behavior changes
But after Jeff finished his sophomore year at Clackamas Community College, where he had become intricately involved in its music department, his behavior and actions began to change.

His family noticed the strange behavior, but didn’t know how to define it or help him.

Todd said he believes his son may have been battling with schizophrenia. Although Jeff was not willing talk about the voices in his head, his family had suspected something incredibly wrong.

“It overtook his mind and brain,” said Todd. “It was very, very sad to watch. I didn’t even learn about this until (recently), when I sat down with a psychologist. We had no idea what was happening. We just noticed this tremendous change in this beautiful child.”

The change, he said, happened over the past 90 days. Jeff had been living at home with his father, then unexpectedly moved out when the two didn’t get along. He was living in his car and would not return phone calls or text messages, opting to bounce from friend to friend, city to city.

Jeff had just visited a cousin in Bend last week. His car was found, abandoned, at Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint. Deschutes County search and rescue began a thorough search of the area, finally finding the man 300 feet below, in the Crooked River Gorge.

The area was not a place that Jeff or his family had ever purposely visited.
 
Missing persons’ report
When Todd heard that his son’s car had been found, he immediately went to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and filed a missing persons report.

“He was going through hell,” Todd said. “But he couldn’t tell us, because the ‘voices’ wouldn’t allow it. I can’t fathom what he must have been feeling. He had just become very despondent. It’s a very tragic story.”

The family, recognizing the change in their son, wondered whether he had been abusing drugs and alcohol, but Todd said his son was clean of substances at the time of his death.

Rather, the father believes this mental disease came on quickly, a common occurrence among those afflicted with schizophrenia.

The Deschutes mental health expert told Todd Johnson that a hormonal imbalance, particularly affecting males ages 18-25, causes the disease to ‘kick in.’

“I learned so much in such a short period of time,” Todd said. “When I look back and saw the progression, the downward spiral – every single thing, as far as behavior change, it’s textbook. Every single one. I guess it helps me now, to understand what happened to my son. Up to that point, nobody got it.”

The news has been devastating for Jeff’s brother, Brad, who considered his older sibling to be his best friend.

“This was one of the closest bonded brotherships you’ll ever see,” said Todd. “Any of their friends would say the same thing. Although their personalities were not similar, even almost opposite, from the time they were very little, Jeff took the leadership role, and Brad idolized his older brother. He thought he was the greatest guy in the world.”

When their parents divorced 11 years ago, Jeff and Brad had each other to lean on.

“They just bonded together,” said Todd, “because they knew they needed to be a team.”

Their mother, Julie Johnson, lived just down the street from the boys and their father, equally sharing parenting roles. She only recently moved to Portland.
 
A tough four days
“We’ve all had a tough four days,” Todd said. “When we found out the car was abandoned, then we did the missing person’s report, and we were waiting around all day Sunday. Monday we learned they had found a body at the bottom of the canyon. I drove over and witnessed where all this occurred. Then I went to the funeral home and viewed Jeff myself.”

Todd relied on the support of relatives who work in law enforcement in the Bend area, who assisted him in visiting the park and funeral home.“Without their help and guidance, I’m not sure I could do what I went through,” he said. “You keep waiting for the bad dream to be over, that you’ll wake up and that things will be right again. It seems like one big, bad dream.”

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